This · is · Retarded

Below are listed the albums that have played the most part in influencing me throughout the years, and also contributed to many streaks of my own creativity (and yes, everything on this list still sees rotation in my CD player or que'd up in my Winamp player... go figure:

ABC DIABOLO - Give Rise to Doubt
AC/DC - High Voltage; Powerage; Dirty Deeds...; For Those About To Rock
ALICE IN CHAINS - Facelift
AMEBIX - Monolith
AMORPHIS - Tales From the Thousand Lakes
ANATHEMA - Pentacost III
ANTHRAX - Among the Living; Spreading the Disease
ANTI CIMEX - Absolut Country Of Sweden
ASBESTOS DEATH - S/T EP
ASPHYX - Last One on Earth; S/T
ASSUCK - Anticapital
AT THE GATES - Slaughter Of The Soul; The Red In The Sky Is Ours
AUTOPSY - Severed Survival

BAD BRAINS - Rock For Light
BAD RELIGION - Suffer; How Could Hell Be Any Worse
BARATHRUM - Legions Of Perkele
BATHORY - The Return...; Requiem
BLACK FLAG - Slip It In; Loose Nut; Damaged
BLACK SABBATH - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath; Paranoid
BLITZ - Voice of a Generation
BLUE CHEER - Outsideinside
BOLT THROWER - Realm of Chaos; The IVth Crusade; In Battle There Is No Law
BRUJERIA - Matando Gueros; Raza Odiada
BRUTAL TRUTH - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses
BUDGIE - Never Turn Your Back On A Friend
BUTTHOLE SURFERS - Independent Worm Saloon

CANDLEMASS - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
CARCASS - Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious; Heartwork
CASH, JOHNNY - Live From Folsom Prison
CATHEDRAL - Forest Of Equilibrium
CELTIC FROST - To Mega Therion; Morbid Tales
CHRISTIAN DEATH - Pornographic Messiah
CIRCLE JERKS - VI; Group Sex; Wild in the Streets
COCK SPARRER - Shock Troops
COOPER, ALICE - Billion Dollar Babies; Killer; Flush The Fashion
CORONER - Mental Vortex; Punishment for Decadence
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY - Blind; Animosity; Technocracy; Six Songs
CURRENT 93 - Dog's Blood Rising

DANZIG - I; Lucifuge; How The Gods Kill
DARK ANGEL - Darkness Descends
DEAD KENNEDYS - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables; Plastic Surgery Disasters; Bedtime for Democracy
DEEP PURPLE - Machinehead
DEICIDE - Legion
DESTROY - Necropolis
DEVASTATION - Idolatry
DEVIATED INSTINCT - Guttural Breath
DIAMONDHEAD - Lightning To The Nations
DIE KRUPPS -  Metalmorphosis of Die Krupps: 81-92
DISCHARGE - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing
DISMEMBER - Like An Everflowing Stream; Pieces
DISRUPT - Unrest
DISSECTION - Storm Of The Light's Bane
DOOM - Police Bastard EP
DYSTOPIA - Human=Garbage

EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN - Halber Mensch; Haus der Luege
EMPEROR - In The Nightside Eclipse; Anthems To The Welkin...
ENSLAVED - (split w/ Emperor); Frost
ENTOMBED - Left Hand Path; Clandestine
EXPLOITED - The Massacre; Let's Start a War
EXTREME NOISE TERROR - Peel Sessions
EYEHATEGOD - In The Name of Suffering; Take As Needed For Pain

FAITH NO MORE - The Real Thing; Angeldust
FASTER PUSSYCAT - Wake Me When It's Over
FRONT 242 -  06:21:03:11 Up Evil
FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY - Tactical Neural Implant
FUDGE TUNNEL - Creep Diets; The Complicated Futility Of Ignorance
FUGAZI - 13 Songs

GBH - City Baby's Revenge
GEHENNA - Admiron Black
GODFLESH - Slavestate; Pure; Streetcleaner
GRAVE - Into the Grave; You'll Never See; Soulless

HEAD OF DAVID - Dustbowl
HELLBASTARD - Natural Order
HELLHAMMER - Apocalyptic Raids
HELMET - Meantime
HIS HERO IS GONE - 15 Counts of Arson; Monuments to Thieves

IMMOLATION - Here In After
IMMORTAL - Blizzard Beasts; Battles In The North; Pure Holocaust
IMPALED NAZARENE - Tol Cormpt Norz Norz Norz
INCANTATION - Onward To Golgotha
INCUBUS - Beyond the Unknown
IRON MAIDEN - Piece of Mind; Powerslave; 7th Son of a 7th Son

JUDAS PRIEST - Screaming For Vegeance; British Steel; Painkiller

KING DIAMOND - Abigail
KISS - Double Platinum; Destroyer
KLUTE - Excluded; Excepted; Excel
KREATOR - Endless Pain; Terrible Certainty; Pleasure to Kill; Extreme Aggression
KYUSS - Blues for the Red Sun

LÆATHER STRIP - Solitary Confinement; Underneath The Laughter
LAIBACH - Opus Dei; Morbid Angel remixes
LARD - The Last Temptation Of Reid
LAWNMOWER DETH - Billy
LED ZEPPELIN - I; II; III; IV; Houses Of The Holy
LOGICAL NONSENSE - Expand the Hive

MALEVOLENT CREATION - The 10 Commandments
MALFORMED EARTHBORN -  Defiance of the Ugly by the Merely Repulsive
MARDUK - Nightwing
MASSACRE- Promise
MAYHEM - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
MC5 - Kick Out The Jams
MEGADETH - Peace Sells...; So Far So Good So What
MELVINS - Houdini; Lysol
MERCYFUL FATE - Don't Break The Oath; Melissa; The Beginning
METALLICA - Kill 'Em All; Ride the Lightning
MINDROT - Dawning; Soul
MINISTRY - The Land Of Rape & Honey; The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste: Psalm 69
MISFITS - Legacy Of Brutality; Walk Among Us; Earth AD; Static Age
MORBID ANGEL - Blessed Are The Sick; Covenant
MORGION - Among Majestic Ruin
MOTLEY CRUE - Too Fast For Love; Shout At The Devil
MOTORHEAD - Motorhead; Overkill; Bomber; Ace of Spades
MY DYING BRIDE - Turn Loose the Swans; As the Flower Withers

NAPALM DEATH - Harmony Corruption; Utopia Banished; From Enslavement To Obliteration
NAUSEA - Extinction
NEUROSIS - Souls At Zero; Enemy Of The Sun
NON - Might!
NUMAN, GARY - The Pleasure Principle

OBITUARY - Slowly We Rot; Cause Of Death; The End Complete
OZZY OSBOURNE - Blizzard of Ozz

PARADISE LOST - Lost Paradise
PENTAGRAM - (early demos)
PESTILENCE - Maleus Maleficarum
PHOBIA - Return To Desolation
PIGFACE - Fook; Washingmachinemouth
PINK FLOYD - Wish You Were Here; The Wall
PITCH SHIFTER - Industrial; Submit; Desensitized
PRAXIS - Sacrifist
PSYCHOPOMPS - 666 Nights In Hell
PUNGENT STENCH - Been Caught Buttering; Club Mondo Bizzarro

QUEENSRYCHE - Operation Mindcrime; Empire

REPULSION - Horrified
RINGWORM - The Promise
RUDIMENTARY PENI - Cacophony

SABBAT - A History Of A Time To Come
SAINT VITUS - Heavier Than Thou
SAMAEL - Ceremony Of Opposites
SAMHAIN - November Coming Fire
SATYRICON - Nemesis Divina
SEPULTURA - Beneath The Remains; Arise; Schizophrenia; Chaos AD
SEX PISTOLS - Nevermind The Bollocks...
SICK OF IT ALL - Scratch the Surface
SKID ROW - Skid Row; Slave to the Grind
SKIN CHAMBER - Wound
SKINNY PUPPY - Last Rites; Too Dark Park; VIVIsect VI
SKREW - Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame
SLAYER - Show No Mercy; Haunting The Chapel; South of Heaven; Seasons in the Abyss
SLEEP - Sleep's Holy Mountain
S.O.D. - Speak English Or Die; Live At Budokhan
SOUNDGARDEN - Louder Than Love; Badmotorfinger
STRAPPING YOUNG LAD - City

T. REX - The Slider; Electric Warrior
TERRORIZER - World Downfall
THIN LIZZY - Jailbreak
TOOL - Undertow

UNLEASHED - Where no Life Dwells; Shadows in the Deep
USURPER - Diabolosis

VAN HALEN - I; Fair Warning; 1984
VENOM - Welcome To Hell; Black Metal; Possessed; At War With Satan
VITAL REMAINS - Let Us Prey

W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P.
WARLOCK - Triumph & Agony
WHITE ZOMBIE - Make Them Die Slowly

There are albums I either can't think of or simply can't remember, music has been a huge aspect of my life over the past 20 years (I remember secretly smuggling cassettes into my room beyond the age of 9 in fear of my parents discovering the transgressions I was committing by listening to rock and roll). A not so concise list of random musicians that have affected me over the years are as follows:

Joe Walsh, Boston, Stealers Wheel, Public Enemy, the Guess Who, Neil Young, Nirvana, Mudhoney, the Sweet, Quiot Riot, Accept, Lynard Skynard, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Golden Earring, Jethro Tull, Blue Oyster Cult, Ice Cube, Mott the Hoople, Flock of Seagulls, Ted Nugent, KMFDM, Cyberaktif, Heart, King Crimson, Yes, Power Station, the Clash, Subhumans, Crass, Minor Threat, the Doors, NWA, Hawkwind, Goblin, Arvo Part, Carl Orff, the Ramones, Suicidal Tendencies, DRI, MDC, Peter & the Test Tube Babies, Dr. Know, Christ on a Crutch, Abscess, Disharmonic Orchestra, Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Butthole Surfers, the Smiths, Atari Teenage Riot, Reagan Youth, David Essex, Gary Glitter, Bile, Agnostic Front, Cromags, Public Image Limited, New Order, Bauhaus, Joy Division, Love & Rockets, David Bowie, New York Dolls, LA Guns, the Runaways, Nazareth, Queen, Journey, Night Ranger, Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Louis Prima, Depeche Mode, Isaac Hayes, Skitsystem, Phobia, Drop Dead, Siege, Dayglo Abortions, Crucifucks, Adicts, Mountain, Asbestos Death, the Germs, the Plasmatics, Aerosmith, Guns'N'Roses, Soft Cell, Psychedelic Furs, Oingo Boingo, Controlled Bleeding, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Mission UK, Foghat, the James Gang, Bad Company, Dokken, Steve Vai, Def Leppard, Rush, the Doobie Brothers, Devo, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Skrewdriver, Mob 47, Crude SS, Combat '84, etc.

The above list can't even begin to cover the extent of what's influenced me over the last 20 plus years of avidly finding music and reveling in it, but it should illustrate an idea of just how random and utterly scattered my musical tastes are, and maybe also give a better hint as to the type of person I happen to be. It probably also has something to do with the fact that I have a hard time recalling events occurring before my 10th birthday, though I CAN tell you that the first cassette I ever bought at a store was a copy of Best of the Monkees when I was 8 years old.